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Medallist: Antonio Pisano, called Pisanello, 1395-1455
commemorating John VIII Palaeologus, Emperor of Constantinople, 1425-1448
Cast bronze medal undated (around 1438-1439), Ferrara or Florence. (Ø 103,8 mm; 300,15 gr.) Bust right, with trim beard and moustache, wearing hat with tall crown and large upturned brim, pointed in front, vest and cloak with falling collar, hair in long curls // OPVS PISANI PICTORIS. The Emperor on an ambling horse right, wearing hat as on obverse, holding bow at left, quiver at right side, raising folded hands as he passes at ride side. Behind him, a page on horseback seen from behind, in background, rocks, upper half of design bordered by plain line ending in hooks.
Of the highest rarity in this quality. Possibly the best known specimen.
Suspension hole. Extremely fine and sharp contemporary cast.
Lot 1 / estimation CHF 50’000 / hammer price CHF 42’000
Reference: Armand I, p. 7, n°20 (Ø 104 mm); Hill, Corpus I, p. 6, n°19 (Ø 103-104 mm); Hill & Pollard (Kress Coll.) n°1 (Ø 103 mm).
Provenance: Collection Dr. Johannes Jantzen, Auction Sternberg XXIX, Zürich (Switzerland) 30 October 1995, lot n°694.
Publication of this specimen in: Johannes Jantzen, Gegossene Medaillen und Plaketten der Renaissance. In “Die Bundesbank”, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Bundesbank, Frankfurt a.M., volume 26, November 1967, p. 4,5,6.
We have also been able to find this very medal illustrated on a photographic plate, attributed to Jacques-Ernest Bulloz, photographer in Paris. Dated between 1900 and 1930, it is now located in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts of the city of Paris, in the Petit Palais (Museum inventory number: PPPH00610(4))
This medal has been crafted to commemorate the visit of the Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos to Florence, Italy in the 15th century. As the Byzantine Empire was on the verge of collapse, almost reduced to the sole imperial city of Constantinople, John VIII needed the assistance of the West in his fight against the Ottomans. For this purpose, he wanted to take part in person at the Council of the Roman Catholic Church in Ferrara/Florence, whose aim was to negotiate a military support of the West, in return for the reunification of the Eastern Orthodox Church with the Catholics.
His visit was a success and lead to the issue by Pope Eugene IV, on 6 July 1439, of the Bulla Unionis Graecorum, temporary ending the East-West Schism and paving the way to a Western Crusade, by both land and see, against the Ottomans. Finally proclaimed on 1st of January 1443, this western Crusade never took place, facilitating and allowing, ten years later, the conquest of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmet II on 29 May 1453 and the fall of the Byzantine empire.
The medallist and painter Antonio di Puccio Pisano, better known as Pisanello, was commonly regarded as one of the most distin¬guished painters of the Italian Quattrocento. Pisanello illustrates with his art production the transition between the courtly style of the Gothic art, or international Gothic style and the early Italian Renaissance.
But his contribution to the history of art is not limited to paintings as he also revolutionized medallic art, having given birth, with this medal, to the first Renaissance medal ever produced.
In addition to the great artistic merit of this medal as well as its rarity, the political and religious contexts of its creation make it even more interesting, as it marks both the begin of the rich production of Renaissance medals that will revolutionize European medallic art, but also in some way the End of the over 1’000 years old Byzantine Empire.
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